After all these weeks of endless waiting and days of breathless watching of the big day’s weather forecast, I cannot believe that the Book Launch Party has come and gone. But it has. And it was a success. In spite of…

…the fact that the weather forecasters being so focussed on the big storm coming got the day’s forecast wrong. A few flurries, they said. Only lake effect and not for very long, they said. The sun shall come out. Uh-huh. The weather interpreted that to mean snow, snow, snow all day long until the party was over, requiring lots of bundling up, slogging through drifts, crawling along the roads, and wiping the windshields. Still, Judy’s special Reverend — Rev. Ed Bentley — drove all the way in from Belleville to join the celebration and to encourage me to keep on writing; Marlene Close, her nurse and good friend, drove in from north of the city to pick up a copy for herself and several as Christmas gifts; Judy’s first surgeon Dr. Michael O’Dwyer and a retired colleague beat the snow back to make it; her hospital mate and long-time friend Gloria Snyder drove in from beyond to see me and my father; Miriam and Cyndy Taylor, Judy’s youngest and oldest daughters, came with entourages and enlivened the party, just as their mother would have; and even a TPN Fellow from Thailand, soon to study under my father, came to purchase Lifeliner so as to learn about the very first TPN case. She read it last night until 5:00 am, intending only to read a little but before she knew it, she was on Chapter 28. Now that’s an e-mail that makes an author grin from ear to ear!

My parents and I intended to get there early, well before the stated 2:00 pm start, so that we’d have time to settle in and ensure all was in readiness. (We didn’t have to worry about the latter as the church’s social representative had everything in order, even the hot coffee and tea.) But our plan went awry as soon as we drove up to the church — we saw a threesome open and enter one of the doors. They can’t be here for our function, we thought. Yes, they were! And then, within minutes of us walking in, others arrived. I’d barely taken off my coat and put my shoes on and sorted out the signing table with my special pen and camera before I was asked to plant my butt and start signing a pile of books. As I hesitantly looked at the pile, Miriam observed, “You’re not ready for this.” No, I wasn’t. But now that the party is over, I am ready. It’s finally sunk in, this whole book business. I wrote it. I published it. It’s out. It’s selling. People are reading it. I am an author. And, most importantly, I fulfilled my commitment to Cliff. For so many years, both he and I thought it was a lost cause. I started to believe this day would not pass, even when I received my first box of copies from the man in brown and I opened that box and reached in to extract my very first copy. And then yesterday, there it was. Reality.